Pelosi: I Don’t Think Ilhan Omar’s Anti-Semitic, ‘I Think She Has a Different Experience in the Use of Words’

During an Economic Club event today, Speaker Nancy Pelosi defended Congresswoman Ilhan Omar and said she doesn’t believe her to be anti-Semitic.

Pelosi spoke a day after the House overwhelmingly passed an anti-hate resolution. David Rubenstein noted the criticism that it was watered-down from its original purpose of condemning anti-Semitism following Omar’s recent remarks.

“I don’t think it watered down the anti-Semitic language at all, I think it strengthened it,” Pelosi responded. “It isn’t about anybody who hates anybody, it’s about people who act upon their hatred, and that is what we have no place for against anyone in our country.”

In talking specifically about Omar, Pelosi said this:

“I don’t think our colleague is anti-Semitic, I think she has a different experience in the use of words, doesn’t understand that some of them are fraught with meaning that she didn’t realize.”

She defended the resolution again and insisted it had no intention of “reducing the fight against anti-Semitism.”